Cloudy with a Chance of Murder by Gerald Elias

Author:Gerald Elias [Gerald Elias]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2021-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Jefferson Dance’s skeleton crew, which had been loosely monitoring the crowd, ordered everyone in the barn to remain in place. Greatly outnumbered, they attempted to herd the suddenly restive crowd, skittish as a flock of sheep with a coyote on the prowl. Clutching Jacobus’s hand, Yumi eluded Dance’s men and ducked out the side of the barn. She dragged him along as quickly as she dared, Jacobus trusting that even in her haste she would lead him safely through the minefield of puddles and potholes and downed branches in the ravaged landscape. D’Angelo’s cries persisted and, in the dark, they followed the trail of her voice.

She wasn’t at the office. She was farther away down the path. Sunny Flox’s cabin. Jacobus and Yumi were not the first ones to arrive. Not by any means. A small crowd had already congregated. D’Angelo was reduced to whimpering.

“Oh, my God!” Yumi said to Jacobus. “It’s Sunny. He’s dead.”

Yumi described the scene in broad strokes. Flashlights illuminated the shambles of Flox’s cabin with wandering tunnel-vision cylinders of wan, macabre light. There had been a struggle. His body was battered and sprawled sideways over his desk. He had been bludgeoned, broken bones horribly evident. Blood was everywhere.

“Who’s here?” Jacobus asked.

“Just about everyone.” Yumi started to rattle off the names. “One of Dance’s men, I think. Dieter, Ingrid, Cornelia, Jamie—”

“Forget I asked. Who’s not here?”

Yumi looked around.

“Well, Christian and Hannah. They must have gotten sequestered in the barn. And Franz Weiss, the second violinist. And Marcus.”

“Renfro. Again,” Jacobus said under his breath.

“I heard that, Jake. What do you mean, ‘again’?”

“Renfro was next to Talbot when she died. Now he’s MIA when we find Flox murdered. I’m not sure what I mean by again, but it is nevertheless again. And if there was any doubt Anita Talbot was killed, not by accident, but by intention—”

“You’re grasping at straws, Jake. You’re off base if you suspect Marcus. I’m going to go console Joy. You stay here and calm down.”

“And find out what you can,” Jacobus said. “I’ll wait here and eavesdrop. I’ve lost my appetite, anyway.”

As she left him, he called out, “And try to find Flox’s ‘bitches in heat’ note.”

A uniformed member of the park staff, young and inexperienced, attempted ineffectually to shunt the dozen or so gawkers clogging the cabin doorway out into the inhospitable elements. Though Jacobus stood amongst them, no one bothered him or even engaged him in conversation. Funny how easy it is for blind people to become invisible to everyone else, Jacobus thought. They all carry on their own conversations with each other as if I’m not here. As if I can’t hear. Can’t see, so then can’t hear? Makes no sense, but since when did humans make sense? Being invisible. Another benefit to being blind. There were so many, he could hardly count them.

But he learned very little. Expressions of shock, horror. “How could this happen?” “Why?” “It’s too horrible!” The usual. The one question that everyone seemed to be

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